A Design-Based Approach Towards Understanding Gender Differences in Tournament Entry

Last registered on December 02, 2019

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

A Design-Based Approach Towards Understanding Gender Differences in Tournament Entry

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0005112

Initial registration date

November 29, 2019

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

December 02, 2019, 2:55 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

Germany

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Vojtech Bartos

Affiliation

University of Milan

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Roel van Veldhuizen

PI Affiliation

Lund University

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2019-11-29

End date

2020-12-11

Keywords

Gender

Additional Keywords

competitiveness, selection, altruism, experimental design

JEL code(s)

J16, D01, C90

Secondary IDs

Abstract

We propose a non-parametric method that allows us to identify the factors that drive observed effects using treatment comparisons. We implement this method in a laboratory experiment where participants choose between piece rate and tournament pay and use it to estimate the importance of a number of key drivers of the often-observed gender gap in tournament entry, including the role of selection into tournament and the role of externalities on others’ payoffs typically not considered in the literature. We also compare the results of our method to previous estimates that rely on parametric regression-based method to identify the drivers of the gender gap in willingness to compete. Finally, we intend to use our estimates to design environments in which tournament entry is brought in line with different policy goals.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Bartos, Vojtech and Roel van Veldhuizen. 2019. "A Design-Based Approach Towards Understanding Gender Differences in Tournament Entry." AEA RCT Registry. December 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5112-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2019-11-29

Intervention End Date

2019-12-11

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Payment method choice (either binary or a price-list)

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The experiment consists of three rounds. In each round, participants work on a real-effort task that consists of adding 5 two-digit numbers for 3 minutes. In round 1, participants are paid a piece-rate that gives them 10 ECU per correct answer. In round 2, participants are paid a tournament rate of 20 ECU per correct answer if they beat the score of another participant. In round 3, participants make eight choices between various incentive schemes; one of these choices is randomly selected before participants work on the task. At the end of the experiment, one of the three rounds is randomly chosen for payment.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

computer

Randomization Unit

individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

400 individuals

Sample size: planned number of observations

400 individuals, treatments within-subject

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

400 individuals, treatments within-subject

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

With the intended sample size, we have a power of approximately .76 to detect a 10pp reduction in the gender gap in tournament entry assuming a baseline gap similar to Van Veldhuizen (2018) and a conservative estimate of around 10% of participants that change their decision across treatment for reasons that are orthogonal to the treatment.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB